March 19 - Deserts and Wildflower Super Bloom

 We ended the blog last time at Organ Pipe Cactus National Park. On March 9 we went on a 4.4 mile round trip hike to Victoria mine, an abandoned mine, and we saw the mine shaft and an old store building.

 In the afternoon we drove 15 miles, basically along the Mexican border, to Quitobaquito Spring. It was so unexpected to see this lovely pond with palms and greenery in the middle of the desert. In the pond we saw Desert Pup Fish and Soniata Mud Turtles.

On Sunday, March 10, we were lucky enough to get the last two seats on the ranger lead van tour of the Ajo Mountain Scenic Drive. There were eight people in the van plus the driver and Ranger Gina.  The tour was 3 1/2 hours long and we learned all about cactus, the geology of the area, and of course wildflowers. We even saw a double arch.

 Monday, March 11, we moved west to Anza Borrego Desert State Park near Borrego Springs, California. The next morning we went on a very nice hike to hike to Borrego Palm Canyon along a creek with tall palm trees at an oasis in the canyon.

The best pert of the trail were all the wild flowers. It was so unexpected and neat to see tons of wild flowers in bloom in colors of white, yellow, purple, pink red, and blue all along the trail. It seems we have gotten here in the middle of a super bloom that we have been hoping to hit since Florida having heard about all the rain the California.

Because it had rain the night before the creek was very high and we had to wade across the creek twice. One couple told us they had never seen the creek with this much water in 25 years.

On Wednesday, March 13, we took a hike on the Slot Canyon Trail. It was really very interesting with some places very narrow, having to squeeze through with steep sides. The canyon was approximately 1/2 mile long. We saw several hundred Painted Lady Butterflies that have hatched due to all the flowers in bloom. It’s amazing how nature adapts to the environment at the moment.

In the afternoon we were on the search for more wildflowers and we took the Yaqui Wells Nature Trail nature and saw tons and tons of wildflowers blooming, even some cactus blooming, and a blooming Agave which only blooms once and dies.

Pincushion Cactus

Barrel Cactus

Agave Bloom

Ocottillo

On Thursday, March 14 we again took the hike to Borrego Palm Canyon again to see more wild flowers. In the afternoon we went on a ride to see wildflowers ( These people are really obsessed with flowers during a super bloom and the rangers tell you where to see large blooming areas.) On this trip we saw beautiful Purple Sand Verbena, lots of Yellow Desert Sun Flowers, and White Desert Primrose.

Yellow Desert Sun Flowers

White Desert Primrose

Purple Sand Verbena

While driving back to camp we saw really cool Galleta metal sculpture installations - these are metal sculptures of birds, raptors, elephant, horses, sloths, tortoises, camels and more scattered all across the desert. Our favorite was the desert serpent.

On Friday, March 15 we left Anza Borrego and moved to our campsite at Palm Springs - Joshua Tree KOA. Someone at the campground told us to go to the Coachella Valley Preserve, only 12 minutes from our campground, and we took the 2 mile round-trip hike on McCollum Trail which led to a lovely Palm Grove and pond. I was such a pretty spot in the desert.

The campground had three hot tubs that were supposedly heated from geothermal pools and had minerals content that was supposed to be have curative properties. We’re not sure but we enjoyed them as they were nice and hot. On Saturday, 16 March we got up early and drove to Joshua Tree National Park to beat the crowds during spring break. The park has amazing rock piles and Joshua trees that were blooming, which was a very special thing to see.

We took several short trails including the one-mile hidden Valley Trail that was really neat because it took you into a natural valley surrounded by huge, high, rock formations.

Then we took a 2 mile hike on the Wall Street Mill Trail that took us to a historic gold milling and separation plant site where we saw old buildings and cars.

We then took the 1.1 mile round-trip Barker damn trail where we saw a store damn made by ranchers many years ago to water their cattle. The area around the pond was very green with lots of Cottonwood and Juniper Trees.

By this time, the park was getting extremely busy so we moved to more distant parts of the park and took the Cholla Cactus Garden Trail and the Cottonwood Springs Trail and finished with the Bajada Trail which was full of wildflowers.

It was a nice day at Joshua Tree National Park. / We came to back to the campground and had a St. Patrick’s Day dinner in their café of Corned Beef, Cabbage and potatoes. It was surprisingly very good.

The next day March 17 we went to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert,California. It showcased the desert pants and animals in the North American and African areas. We saw tons of animals and native plants.Our favorites were the Cheetahs which we were lucky enough to see as they were getting fed. They were really beautiful and slick animals. They also had a neat G-Scale Model Railroad.

On Monday, March 18 we headed north, enjoyed a stop at In-N-Out burgers and stopping north of Merced at McCallum State Park for the night. The campground was almost empty but we saw many birds and 5 feral cats.

That’s all for now. We are on way north toward home. / More to come…

March 8 - Tucson and Patagonia

 On February 22 we left Phoenix and headed south to Tucson and as we got closer to Tucson it started raining and then snowing hard - thankfully non of it stuck.

We got to Tucson Mountain Park and Gilbert Ray campground - a county park at about 1 pm and got the last campsite. (Lucky since they don’t take reservations so we were glad to get one.) We have stayed here before and really like the area. The campers and trailers who had been there the night before had a couple of inches of snow on them and the TV said it was one of the worst snow storms in years. Later in the afternoon, we drove the short distance to Saguaro National Park and took the Bajada Scenic Loop Drive and took a short walk on the Signal Hill Trail which has several very nice petroglyphs.

Saturday we went to the Pima Air and Space Museum that has a collection of military and civilian aircraft and we saw hundreds of airplanes displayed on their grounds and inside hangers.

Many of the outdoor planes still had snow on them from the day before. One of my favorites was the WW2 B-24 bomber as we are listening to Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand and the B-24 played an important part in the book so it was interesting seeing it first hand.

Sunday we did some hiking in Tucson Mountain Park and in Saguaro National Park. The trails are very nice and the weather warmed up so it was a very nice walk.

Monday, we spent the day at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum - one of our favorite things to do in Tucson. It is almost more of a zoo than a museum and we always go to the Raptor Free Flight Programs and this time we saw a great horned owl, a ferruginous hawk, a gray hawk, a red tailed hawk and five Harris hawks flying free and sometimes very close over our heads!

We went to a reptile program and learned all about gila monsters and rattlesnakes.

Gila Monster

I think we saw almost every animal, bird, reptile, insect and plant there. I liked the cats and birds the best, but the entire place is exceptional!

We were exhausted after walking around all day. Tuesday was chore day. Even on a big adventure one has to do laundry and buy groceries. We did go to lunch at El Guero Canelo which won a James Beard Award for its Sonoran Hotdogs - yum!

Wednesday, we took a hike on the Brown Mountain Loop with the trailhead right near our campground. It was a five mile hike to the top of Brown Mountain and several other smaller hills. The views were wonderful as were the cactus and wildflowers. The weather is improving steadily with daily highs in the mid 70’s.

Thursday we went to Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, part of Coronado National Forest. It is another one of our favorite places in Tucson. When we have gone there in the past, we have taken a tram to the top of the canyon and walked down. However, the tram is not running because of contract disputes, so we took a lovely 3 1/2 mile hike in the lower part of the canyon.

While we were on the trail, we saw a coatimundi - the first time we have ever seen one in the wild. That was pretty cool!

 Friday March 1st we left Tucson and headed about 2 hours south to Patagonia Lake State Park - about 10 miles north of the Mexican border. It is a lovely park with a beautiful lake and best known for all the birds that winter there and migrate through the area. We bought a couple of feeders and have enjoyed watching humming birds and gold finches at our campsite. They have a very nice birding trail that is a great way to see lots of birds and cattle which have free range on the property - but watch where you step! While we were here we took a 1-hour pontoon boat showing water fowl on the lake and a 3-hour bird walk for the land birds where we saw 29 different birds. We particularly like the Vermillion Fly Catcher, a lovely little red bird, and the Lazuli Bunting, a light blue bird.

Clockwise from left - Gila Woodpeckers, Lazuli Bunting, Vermillion Flycatcher,
Verdin, Northern Cardinal, Violet Crowned Hummingbird

Mark has also enjoyed kayaking on the lake and sailing his small remote controlled sail boat. Hikes in the area included the 3-mile hike through the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area adjacent to the park. We had to cross over a spillway that had two inches of water in it we had to wade through because of all the rain and snow that has fallen. The hike was lovely and the desert is starkly different from what we are used to at home but most of the wildlife we saw were cattle!

The hike was lovely and the desert is starkly different from what we are used to at home but most of the wildlife we saw were cattle!

On Tuesday, March 5, we drove north and west to see Mardera Canyon Recreation Area- part of Coronado National Forest and another well known birding area. We hiked the nature trail from Mount Wrightson Picnic Area at 5400 feet to the amphitheater at 5000 and then back up to the starting point. The hike was very nice on a beautiful day but we were again disappointed to not see many birds.

We stopped for lunch in Tubac, a cute little artist town, and then visited Tumacacori National Historic Park that preserves an old Spanish Mission established in 1691 to 1828 for the O’odham native people. The self guided tour through the ruins was very interesting.

It was a very nice relaxing week at Patatgonia with nice warm weather and Mark increased his birding list to 128 different birds this trip.

On March 8 we left Patagonia and headed west to Oregon Pipe Cactus National Monument. The temperatures had dropped back down into the 60’s and it was windy driving here. The landscape is much greener here and we saw lots of wildflowers along the road.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is protecting the only place in the United State that three types of columnar cactus - Saguaro, Organ Pipe and Senita Cacti.

Organ Pipe Cactus in front of Saguaro Cactus

We have a great campsite with Organ Pipe, Saguaro, and Barrel Cacti surrounding us. We set up camp and went to the visitor center and a nature walk and attended a campfire ranger program tonight.



Tomorrow we are excited to get out and explorer the park. More to come…